What is Buddhism?
Buddhism is a religion that 300 million people believe in. The word comes from ‘budhi’ meaning ‘ to awaken. (White) 2.500 years ago, Siddhartha Gotama, as known as the Buddha was awaken and that’s when Buddhism began to develop. For some people Buddhism goes farther than religion and is considered to be a ‘way of life’ (White).
What is the purpose of Buddhism?
It offers you a path that could lead to true happiness. The Buddha himself was born into a wealthy family in a place called Lumbini, and he came to the conclusion that wealth doesn’t always mean happiness and this caused him to look for different ways to achieve it. Another aim of Buddhism is understanding the human mind which is also connected with human psychology.
Buddhism as a religion
Buddhism is an accepted religion but its more of understanding life and and finding happiness and compassion within ourselves. What cannot be denied is that we will face problems throughout our lives. Buddha simply offers a teaching that everyone can use in their own way to overcome those problems and to realize that the solutions are also within ourselves. Everyone can become a Buddhist since its’ teachings can be tested by anyone, but on the other hand Buddhism doesn’t care for labels such as ‘Buddhist, Muslim, Christian’, its about you understanding the teachings and shaping your life according to them.
Buddhism as a scientific religion
After Buddha was enlightened, he started teaching what he learned to the others until he died. But in that process he wanted people not to accept what he said as truth right away, he wanted them to test and observe them. Science can be explained the same way, such as the roots of it relies on testing and observing the nature. Both terms are connected in the way they try to get to the truth and knowledge.
Buddhism’s Environmental Worldview
Oneness
One of Buddha’s teachings states that human and nature are inseparable, that there is a interconnection. It suggests the way humans treat nature relies on their perspective of human and nature and the inseparability of the two. Since human and nature are connected the harm that has been done to Earth, will eventually come back to humans and harm us as well. The relationship between human and nature could be beneficial only if we understand the “oneness”. The more you give to the nature, the more it will give back to you.
Buddhism is a religion that fights against individual benefit, but instead supports coexisting. The religion has an holistic point of view, seeing the world and the living creatures in it as one. When ‘oneness’ is accepted by someone, that person will realize its existence within others, which creates modesty and ability to work together as a whole like a system should.
The inseparability idea it holds fights with human emotions we consider as ‘bad’ and ‘evil’ such as arrogance, greed, selfishness and so on. Instead it supports modesty, generosity and selflessness. It makes you become a better person for your own and at the end for others good.
Especially around 1950s Buddhism was starting to get more acceptance because of its suitability and the relevance it had with the scientific worldview that was developing. Terms like eco-buddhist, eco-justice, eco-ethicist and green Buddhism started to come up for discussion to prevent the environmental problems 20th century brought. With ‘Industrial Revolution’ using up a lot of limited sources that are harmful to the nature and for humans, ecological challenges increased enormously.
Capitalism and a materialistic worldview destroys the world
Countries have an endless desire to become the best and the strongest at any cost, not caring about what will happen to the nature or to them in the future. An atomic bomb being exploded, all the sources, all the workforce and the money that’s been put into making billions of guns to get a bit more land is insane. We act without thinking about the consequences of our actions, how it will end up affecting us. The main goal shouldn’t be about being the best or owning the most money and power, but instead protect the sustainability this world holds. This is exactly what Buddhism has to offer. It offers a mind set that eradicates the desire to be the best and encourages to keep the balance straight. What keeping the balance means is providing the right conditions for Earth and all the ecosystems to regain back their way of functioning without human disturbance.
The materialistic worldview was born with humans’ desire for more and more money. A survey that has been done in US shows that although income has been doubled between the years of 1946 to 1996, the number of people who would identify themselves as happy hasn’t’ changed. Same like US, in Japan income increased five or more times between the years 1958 to 1991, but the level of happiness hasn’t changed. (Sherwood). This brings back the point made by Buddha mentioned beginning of this paper, which is wealth and luxury doesn’t always mean happiness.
Buddhism offers a different paradigm
Buddhism suggests freeing the mind from aversion, desire and mental suffering which is about the quality of mindfulness, and maintaining a society in which people feel safe and satisfied with what they own. If the society is in a state of mind that doesn’t fear war, famine and hunger then the capitalism would collapse and the harm that’s been done would decrease dramatically.
As Martin Luther King once said “ We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together into a single garment of destiny. Whatever effects one directly, effects all indirectly. Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you have depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” (Sherwood).
Works Cited
Sherwood, Dr Patricia. The Green Buddha “Buddhism and sustainability”. <www.buddhismandaustralia.com>.
White, Brian. 1993. <www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm>.
Ecoist Magazine 